When a Houston jury handed down a 20-year sentence—the maximum available—for Tony Earls in the death of 9-year-old Arlene Alvarez. Alvarez’s mother, Wendy Alvarez, used her victim impact statement to deliver a searing message of grief and accountability.
Addressing Earls directly, Wendy told him, “You wanted to apologize to us, but what you did that night was wrong, and you need to pay.” Her words underscored that the punishment, though significant, could never balance the loss of her daughter’s life. “Twenty years is not enough,” she declared, pressing that no legal outcome could capture the magnitude of her family’s pain…